I attended a seminar the other day at a local trade show and one thing that they mentioned almost in passing that inspired me was the critical concept of “selling your successes”.
Hmmm… “Sell your successes” – What could that mean?
Simply put, when you walk the talk, talk the walk. Adjust your marketing and sales conversations and materials to reflect how your product or services helped someone achieve what they wanted.
Now how do you do this? Well here are 3 techniques that when applied effectively can lower your marketing costs & energize your business.
1. Let ‘Testimonials’ Pave the Way
To best illustrate this technique, let me share with you a line that I use often that goes something like this: “If I tell you that I’m great at what I do, at best you’ll take it with a grain of salt, but if an unbiased third-party tells you that I’m great at what I do, you’ll tend to believe them. In other words, people tend to give more credence to what someone else says about you rather than what you say about yourself.
So use every opportunity to gain testimonials about you, your team, your product, your service, or your business in general. Collecting and effectively using testimonials should become a key marketing strategy for your business.
2. Using ‘Stories’ to Get Your Point Across
Storytelling has been around since the beginning of mankind and when used properly can illustrate your point better than almost any other way. Stories have the power to capture and engage the listener in a softened manner – not the hard selling approach that people typically run away from. Stories also have the unique ability to take complex ideas and make them easy to understand – without a dissertation on the subject.
My best advice here is to model other great storytellers. Take one of my favorites for instance, Mark Victor Hansen. Just look at his Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books. Essentially each chapter is a story effectively illustrating a point that touches, moves, and inspires its readers.
So you may be tempted to say, well that’s easy for him, but I’m no Mark Victor Hansen. Now maybe you potentially are or aren’t, however my point is, that this is a very learnable skill, people aren’t born with it. They develop it by continually practicing and honing it.
3. Sharing ‘Case Studies’ to Illustrate what’s Possible
Case studies are a sure-fire way to give your prospect a mental picture of what’s possible for their business should they engage you help. These are particularly great for those prospects who need to see it themselves in order to believe it. Case studies illustrate tangible solutions – they tend to instill a deeper level of confidence in your prospect that you can get it done for them. Essentially, you have a track record of success to draw upon.
Now when using any or all of the 3 techniques just discussed, remember that just like telling a joke, timing and delivery are critical to their success. For example placing a testimonial in your sales letter in just the right spot where you are looking to establish credibility is key to getting your prospect to keep reading.
These techniques can also play a critical role in humanizing your business and its offerings – placing real people behind your messages. For example, instead of pounding a prospect with every possible service you offer and the features and benefits of each, try using a short story to simplify a complicated solution that you implemented for a similar customer. Or how about using a relevant case study in a sales presentation illustrating how your service helped a client with similar needs to the prospect you’re presenting to.
Try integrating these techniques into your everyday marketing and realize the positive residual effects they can bring.
© 2006 Online Marketing Muscle -- All Rights Reserved.
Sell Your Successes: 3 Techniques That Can Lower Your Marketing Costs & Energize Your Business
Basic Private Investigation Techniques
We often see and hear of private investigators doing romantic and risky jobs in various forms of media. Well, nothing is far from the truth. In fact, their works are really risky and should be taken as a serious one. When have you heard of a humorous private investigation case anyway?
Central to this issue is the actual personality of the private investigation. There may be innate characteristics that are largely involved yet this does not negate the fact that training, classes and programs for developing private investigators play varied roles in the field of study.
Private investigators should have a blend of creativity and excellent logic. This is rare though since most people who are creative don’t normally have efficient logic. After all, these functions come from the different hemispheres of the brain.
Private investigation uses various techniques that concern wide spectrum of methods to solve cases of cheating husbands to finding missing individuals. To accomplish their investigations, they make use of techniques that would not only unbundled cues but would also resolve the case.
From verifying calls to interviewing and tracking their subjects, private investigators have a technique or two in store.
One common technique in investigation is physical surveillance. This normally involves the actuality of being in the very spot where people and events that might lead to the solution of the case move. Say, a persons' home or a specific spot in the city.
And obviously, this is done secretly and out of anybody's observance. This may be a classic private investigation technique but as it is, it still works well.
However, this also covers other techniques that can maximize the surveillance procedure. Investigators normally use devices such as binoculars, cell phones, video recorders, cameras and voice recorder, practically, everything that would preserve evidences.
Surveillance can go on for several days or even weeks, until enough substantial evidences are gathered to support the case.
Another commonly practiced technique in the trade is the use of computer searches via databases. However, with investigators who have lower proficiency in the field, they normally partner with firms that specialize in this area.
Obviously, computers aid in the accumulation of details and information that could lead to the eventual solution of the specific case. Normally, vital information on the person's life is needed in investigations. Central to these are civil legal judgments, previous arrests and convictions, club memberships, telephone numbers and a number of other details. Basically, if it’s an investigation on public record, any private investigator can surely obtain them.
One main question with this job deals on its being exceptionally dangerous.
Well, this doesn't normally have to be dangerous yet as we know it, danger can come in moments when we are not aware of. There are of course cases that are more dangerous than others like bounty hunting and similar stuffs. In general though, private investigation is not as dangerous as we were made to believe. Certainly, things happen that could bring scare to anyone yet such occasions are rare. Like most stories we hear of, the well-attended to are those that are more like fictions than truth.
Remember that with private investigation techniques, safety is the forefront principle. Many can be caught into trouble but it must be understood that it is trouble that is basically dealt with in here. Nevertheless, any trained private investigation knows this one core fact.